Into the Woods (ACP)
Main Page: A Cularin Presence Key ideas of this encounter: first excursion into the Cularin jungle; a chase; and finally, a combat! The preponderance of evidence the heroes have gathered will push them toward investigating the jungle, and as was noted in the previous encounter (Beggars and Choosers), doing so will require Speeders. Note that this is not something OPS is willing to do, because of the source of some of the information, and the private security forces have enough trouble just defending their warehouses right now and cannot spare the personnel to search the jungle- although any house who is approached about this will offer the heroes a bounty of 50 credits each if they can locate and/or bring back the individuals responsible. Additionally, either Renna or Nim'Ri will offer to let the heroes borrow a Speeder big enough for the entire group, potentially equipped with a Droid driver. Rental Speeders are covered at the end of Part 4 (Beggars and Choosers), and some sort of jungle speeder will be necessary, since it is EXTREMELY unsafe to walk through the jungles of Cularin. Which brings us, rather naturally, to what the heroes know about the jungles. First, think rainforest. Huge trees, lots of hanging vines and strange flowers, and air so heavy with water that your hair gets slick just walking through it. The Tarasin live out here, in their Irstat (Small villages), as do other things- giant reptiles who guard their territory with a vengeance. So walking = Very Bad Idea. No Tarasin would willing walk the jungles without a full hunting party, and make it clear that if the heroes try to walk it, they’ll probably die. Make sure the heroes have done at least some of Part 2 (The Hunt), and all of Part 3 (In Broad Daylight), before heading to the jungle, else the adventure may run short. Feel free to use your ingenuity to get them to extra encounters before this one if they figure things out too quickly. Regardless, once they have a Speeder and a basic idea of where they’re going, read the following: Your pilot [Whether that is the Droid or one of the heroes] starts the Speeder and you set off into the jungle. Passing beneath the great boughs, the world becomes darker, with shafts of yellow light stretching down through the trees to touch the leaf-covered forest floor. Strange smells (Familiar to any Tarasin) assault your nostrils as you pick up speed, getting more comfortable with your surroundings. Off to your right, something moves in the thick underbrush, and as you watch a small lizard-like creature, perhaps three feet tall at the shoulder, waddles out of the bushes on all fours, spots you, and darts away once more, much more quickly than you would have thought it's stubby body could carry it. It’s a nice ride. It’s quite hot, but the motion of the air as the Speeder moves steadily through the jungle cools your sweat and the condensation from the jungle air pretty well. Go ahead and give the heroes Perception checks (DC 19), since there is a new sound in the jungle, the sound of a pair of Speeders that are coming up behind them very rapidly. Heroes who make the checks, obviously, will not be Surprised when the next box-text hits them, nor will anyone who has told you they are watching behind the speeder and make a DC 14 Perception check. Suddenly, two blaster bolts rip through the air on either side of your Speeder! There is a pair of Speeder Bikes behind the heroes, their riders armed with Blaster Pistols (Reflex Defense 15, 27 Hit Points, attack bonus +3). The men on them are in the employ of the pirates in Part 7 (Piracy?), and have been told to make sure no one comes into this sector. However, they’re only prepared for tourist traffic, and will be pretty surprised when someone shoots back at them. The combat will go like this. First, neither of these guys can hit the broad side of a barn. (Do you really think we’re going to put guys with weapons that do 3d6 in an event with only first level heroes and make them at all competent? C’mon... Besides, they lack the requisite Feats to be able to accurately take out moving targets from moving Speeders.) Kerner is unprepared to have anyone shoot back at him. As soon as anyone does so, or does anything else that would reasonably surprise him, roll a d20 behind your DM screen and describe one of the drivers suddenly veering off and crashing into a tree with a huge explosion. Bont will stay with them, having somewhat more nerve than his companion, but his accuracy will not improve. Treat him as having a total -8 to hit because of being rattled, firing from a moving Speeder, at range, etc. It’s okay for him to hit the Speeder once (Treat the heroes’ Speeder as having 20 Hit Points), but it’s not likely since he has minimal cover and makes an easy target, and his Speeder Bike only has 12 Hit Points and a Reflex Defense of 12 (It’s a cheap model). Given that the Speeder provides at least partial Cover for the heroes, he shouldn’t be able to hit them with a penalty of -8 to his rolls, but you should scare them a little nonetheless. Eventually, the heroes will blast Bont into nothingness, at which point... The explosion of the Speeder Bike seems to have disrupted something in your Speeder’s controls! If there is a rented Droid driving, his circuits are fried as well, and they’re going to crash and take 1d6 damage. A DC 20 Use Computer skill check can get the Droid functional, but there’s nothing to do with the Speeder except hope for the best (Getting the Droid functional allows a landing that only deals 1d2 damage to the heroes, but will break the Droid in half). If one of the heroes is Piloting the Speeder, they can make a DC 24 Pilot check to force the Speeder toward a clearing, where the crash landing will only do 1d2 damage to everyone in the Speeder (1d6 if they fail). If this is one of Renna’s Speeders, then the heroes had better figure out what’s going on and succeed in their mission to keep from making her mad. If it’s a rental... well, as long as they put down the security deposit, they’ll be fine. If not, the heroes will incur 3,800 credits worth of debt to repay. If this is a personal Speeder- wow, that’s bad luck. It looks like about 500 credits worth of damage to Repair. It will be possible for the heroes to find Bont’s Blaster Pistol later. Kerner’s, unfortunately, went up in smoke. You pull yourselves out of the wrecked Speeder and look around the clearing where it came to rest. Strange plants and flowers carpet the ground, and a small stream runs by the west edge of the clearing. There’s a strange, pungent smell in the air, probably coming from the piles of refuse all around. And the noises of the jungle seem to be getting louder... Give the heroes one round of actions- healing each other or what have you- then have them roll Perception checks (DC 14) to notice that something is coming through the underbrush to the north and south of them. These are five of the same quadrupedal creatures they spotted while they were on the Speeder, coming to find out what’s going on in their jungle. Normally, Mulissiki would not bother with Humans, but they have very much been enjoying feeding off the refuse piles here (This is the Cartel’s dumping ground; they don’t worry about it because the Mulissiki are present and tend to keep the amount of garbage from getting out of hand) and are getting a little uppity and territorial because this is GOOD garbage! So while they wouldn’t usually attack, this garbage is good enough that they’re coming after the heroes. The fight will attract the attention of the Cartel guards, who will show up at the end of the fight, or when the first hero is knocked unconscious (Assuming this is after round 2, at minimum), and escort the heroes back to the Cartel’s new base of operations in Part 6 (The Cartel, Back to Nature). Category:Homebrew Content